Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.24

Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 24th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 6th will be given a dividend of 0.24 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.89%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 6th. This is an increase from Heritage Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23.

Heritage Financial has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Heritage Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 43.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Heritage Financial to earn $1.92 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 50.0%.

Heritage Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ:HFWA opened at $24.65 on Friday. Heritage Financial has a twelve month low of $16.55 and a twelve month high of $27.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $25.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $841.80 million, a PE ratio of 22.82 and a beta of 0.57.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.06. Heritage Financial had a net margin of 12.27% and a return on equity of 7.01%. On average, analysts anticipate that Heritage Financial will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on HFWA shares. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Heritage Financial from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Stephens raised their price objective on Heritage Financial from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $25.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Tony Chalfant sold 2,975 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.50, for a total transaction of $78,837.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 20,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $533,153.50. This trade represents a 12.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Heritage Financial

Heritage Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Heritage Bank that provides various financial services to small and medium sized businesses and individuals in the United States. It accepts various deposit products, such as noninterest demand deposits, interest bearing demand deposits, money market accounts, savings accounts, personal checking accounts, and certificates of deposit.